Cirrus@Austlit

'Nobody knows everything that happens inside a marriage, not even the people in it. The same can be said of families.

'What do you do when your partner's infidelity upends your life? When you have to face up to your own addictions? Mental illnesses rain down on those you love? Parents die, careers end, love is found in unexpected places.

'As a journalist, Kate Legge often sought answers to how people reckon with bad hands dealt or bad decisions. Then came her own search when faced with her husband's affair that unearthed a fault line of unfaithfulness running through four generations of his family.

'Is infidelity a predisposition or learned behaviour? Infidelity and Other Affairs starts with this puzzle then contemplates life's curveballs as Legge strives to understand how we become who we are.

'To her own surprise, she finds strength and peace where revenge and hate were imagined.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'He was an Austrian immigrant; she came from Tasmania. He grew up beside the Carinthian Alps; she climbed mountains when few women dared. Their honeymoon glimpse of Cradle Mountain lit an urge that filled their waking hours. Others might have kept this splendour to themselves, but Gustav Weindorfer and Kate Cowle sensed the significance of a place they sought to share with the world. When they stood on the peak in the heat of January 1910, they imagined a national park for all.

'Kindred: A Cradle Mountain Love Story traces the achievements of these unconventional adventurers and their fight to preserve the wilderness where they pioneered eco-tourism. Neither lived to see their vision fully realised: the World Heritage listed landscape is now visited by 250,000 people each year. Award-winning journalist Kate Legge tells the remarkable story behind the creation of the Cradle Mountain sanctuary through the characters at its heart.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'On Monday, Leith Kremmer's book-club friends meet in her lounge room, catch up on each other's lives, and indulge in her elegant champagne supper. Upstairs, Leith's husband George practises his golf swing. The next morning Leith is dead, under suspicious circumstances.

'One week later, George, a family-court judge, has delved into his marriage - including Leith's long-held secrets, and his own - in a desperate attempt to comprehend her death. And Leith's friends, in examining their own marriages, have emerged far from unscathed. Was Leith the charming ally they thought they knew? And do they really know their own partners?

'The Marriage Club takes place over the course of one tumultuous week. As everyone begins to tease out the truth, they are finally able to let down their guards and be their real selves. If only they could have done so earlier ...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.